Three Ingredients to Help Students Navigate Choices
A growing number of schools and families today believe offering students choices can increase their sense of “ownership” in their learning. I am among them. I’ve seen students come alive when their teacher provides them options for their next project, paper, or capstone assignment. As choices increase, we believe student engagement will also deepen—and it…
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Athletes & Mental Health: Two Changes We Need to Make
You may remember Tyler Hilinski, the Washington State University quarterback who took his own life last January. His football team took a knee as they launched a new season this year—visually acknowledging their fallen teammate, and further shining a spotlight on a significant and growing issue for student athletes: The mental health crisis. Certainly, athlete…
Continue ReadingFour Workplace Rules Gen Z Team Members Should Learn
This past month, I found myself speaking at events to business managers, university executives and athletic directors about “generational diversity.” Today, we not only experience ethnic diversity and gender diversity in the workplace, but a diversity of generations attempting to work together, including Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and now Gen Z. And with these…
Continue ReadingAnxiety: One Solution to Get Out of this Mess
Everywhere I go, I meet adults (most of them parents) who are afraid for our kids today. We are afraid of what can happen on social media, school shootings, drug abuse, cyber-bullying, terrorism, phone addictions, you name it. Since I see this in every state, I decided to dig and discover why we have become…
Continue ReadingSix Effective Leadership Traits You Can Build
I began my career as a leader in 1979. I had never been taught leadership, and I had limited leadership experience. I began teaching students, but soon I was put in charge of colleagues—managing a team of people, most of them older than I was. I was both passionate and intimidated. Without the help of…
Continue ReadingFive Dangerous Apps Parents Don’t Know Teens Use
One decade ago, high school senior, Jessica Logan sent a nude photo of herself to her boyfriend. When they later broke up, he forwarded the photo to everyone else at her school. This launched her tragic attempt to hide from those who teased her about being a slut. Jessica ended up losing the battle for…
Continue ReadingHow Great Leaders Create Engaged Cultures
After meeting with a national champion athletic coach, a president of a growing university and an amazing principal of a 3,600-student high school—I’ve drawn at least one conclusion about quality leadership: Great leaders create the campus culture. This means, when you arrive, you are the “Chief Culture Officer.” You improve the culture, through your own…
Continue ReadingOne Great Reason to Reduce Social Media Use
I just finished speaking to both parents and students at a high school and—wouldn’t you know it—social media was the all-consuming topic of my two days on campus. So many parents felt obliged to purchase a smart phone for their child as a middle-schooler, and now years into the social media craze, many feel it’s…
Continue ReadingThe Consequence of Undivided Attention
I just met a mom at a parent conference who approached me afterward asking, “How do parents do it theses days?” When I inquired what she meant, she said: How do moms offer undivided attention to their children and still get everything done? Herein lies the new gauge for today’s parents. We assume that any good…
Continue ReadingFour Ways Gratitude Can Change Your Life
Thanksgiving is the time of year that most of us busy Americans get to push the Pause button on our lives and relax with friends or family. It’s supposed to be the time we reflect on how fortunate we are for the people around us, the food inside of us, and the “stuff” in front…
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